Game apparatus

ABSTRACT

Game apparatus comprising a game board and a plurality of objects such as marbles which are caused to progressively advance along paths provided by the game board. The illustrated game board has a flat upper surface in which the paths are formed by rows of receptacles in the form of depressions. The rows are parallel to one another and run from one end of the board to the other. The receptacles in each row are spaced from one another. Each of the illustrated receptacles will accommodate two or more of the marbles. Propelling means are provided at a first or starting end of the board for propelling the marbles along the various paths. In the play of the game, some of the propelled marbles will seat themselves in the receptacles. Then as a subsequent marble is propelled and engages a seated marble, the impact causes the forward marble to be further propelled to a subsequent receptacle along its row. Thus, the marbles are caused to advance along the various rows, with the players competing to advance their marbles. The board may be inclined upwardly from start to finish so that if a marble does not seat itself in a receptacle, it will roll back down to the starting end where the propelling means are located so that it can be propelled again.

United States Patent 1191 Goldfarb et a1.

[ 1 GAME APPARATUS [75] Inventors: Adolph E. Goldfarb, 4614 Monarra Dr.,Tarzana; Rene Soriano, Los Angeles, both of Calif.

73 Assignee: said Goldfarb, by said Soriano 22 Filed: Dec.4, 1972 21Appl.No.: 311,635

[52] US. Cl. 273/122 R, 273/123 R [51] Int. Cl. A63f 7/00 [58] Field ofSearch 273/102, 115, 116, 122, 273/123,118,119,l21,l24,129,126,108

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 683,566 10/1901 Meyers273/124 R 425,249 4/1890 Poggenburg 273/123 R 2,863,666 12/1958 Aronson273/126 R 2,789,823 4/1957 Bennett 273/126 R 3,017,186 l/l962 Ascardi...273/108 1,102,986 7/1914 Healey 273/108 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS761,661 3/1934 France 273/129 R 4,867 2/1909 Great Britain 273/119 RPrimary Examiner-Richard C. Pinkham Assistant Examiner-Theatriee BrownAttorney, Agent, or FirmRobert M. Ashen [451 Apr. 30, 1974 [57] ABSTRACTGame apparatus comprising a game board and a plurality of objects suchas marbles which are caused to progressively advance along pathsprovided by the game board. The illustrated game board has a flat uppersurface in which the paths are formed by rows of receptacles in the formof depressions. The rows are parallel to one another and run from oneend of the board to the other. The receptacles in each row are spacedfrom one another. Each of the illustrated receptacles will accommodatetwo or more of the marbles. Propelling means are provided at a first orstarting end of the board for propelling the marbles along the variouspaths. 1n the play of the game, some 'of the propelled marbles will seatthemselves in the receptacles. Then as a subsequent marble is propelledand engages a seated marble, the impact causes the forward marble to befurther propelled to a subsequent receptacle along its row. Thus, themarbles are caused to advance along the various rows, with the playerscompeting to advance their marbles. The board may be inclined upwardlyfrom start to finish so that if a marble does not seat itself in areceptacle, it will roll back down to the starting end where thepropelling means are located so that it can be propelled again.

11 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures GAME APPARATUS There have been variousgames in the prior art utilizing marbles or like objects which arepropelled for various purposes. Most of such games have fallenintocertain specific categories. One such category involves shooting marblesor other projectiles at targets to knock them over or to actuatesignals. Another category involves shooting the marbles at one another.Still another category involves projecting the marbles along a difficultor circuitous path. Such' games often require more skill than ispossessed by the user, especially younger children who become frustrated'when they are not successively hitting the target. The game of thepresent invention is relatively simple, even for younger children. Thealignment and construction of the pro pelling means and the rows ofreceptacles is such that the marbles progress up the rows fromreceptacle to receptacle in a manner exciting to the child, withoutrequiring great shooting skill on his part. The game apparatusof theinvention also provides an exciting'chainreaction effect in that whenseveral marbles are retained in a receptacle and the marbles in thatrecess are impacted from the rear by another marble, the forward-mostmarble will be impelled forwardly while the rear-most marble whichprovided the impact will seat itself in the recess. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a game board with play objects thereon whichcomprises a presently preferred embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a side sectional view of the game apparatus shown in FIG. 1taken generally along line 2-2 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary view of a portion of an alternate form of gameapparatus.

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary view of a portion of still another form of gameapparatus.

The preferred form of the invention shown in the drawings comprisesgenerally a playing board 10 and a plurality of playing pieces orobjects 12. The illustrated playing objects 12 are spheres such asmarbles. Other forms of objects such as slidable blocks might beutilized in the play of the game, as will become more apparent from thefollowing description.

The illustrated board 10 may be made of any suitable material such asmolded plastic, wood or the like. The board is generally rectangular inshape, having a lower first or starting end 14 and a elevated second orfinishing end 16. The upper end 16 of the illustrated board is convergedto an apex as shown in FIG. 1. The board has a generally flat uppersurface 18 surrounded by an upright rail or peripheral wall 19. Thesurface 18 has a plurality of depressions or recesses which definereceptacles 20 for receiving the play objects. The receptacles 20 of theillustrated board are arranged in paral lel rows extending from one endof the board to the other. The receptacles 20 in each row are spacedfrom one another, and in the illustrated structure, the portions of theboard between the receptacles of a row comprise smooth, flat portions 22of the upper surface of the board. For example, a row of the receptacles20a together with the smooth flat portions 22a between the receptacles20a define a path for the objects to follow. This is a simply, easily,and economically fabricated form of construction.

The individual receptacles 20 may be elongated lengthwise of the board.In another words, they have one larger dimension extending from one endof the board to the other. Each of the illustrated receptacles 20 has aninclined-portion 24 at its forward end for easy exit of the sphericalplay objects 12 out of the receptacle. The rearward end 25 of eachreceptacle has a generally vertical wall to retain the spheres in thereceptacle (See FIG. 2). The illustrated receptacles 20 are proportionedto receive and retain two of the spherical play objects 12 at one time.It is desirable that a receptacle 20 be able to hold more than one ofthe play objects since this permits the chain-reaction effect referredto-above. The size of the receptacle maybe indreased to accommodate morethan two of the spheres if desired, although the illustrated playapparatus has been found to operate very effectively in the form shownin the drawings. As shown in FIG. 1, the receptacles of the illustratedboard are arranged in an altemating pattern, with the receptacles of onerow being staggered from the receptacles of adjacent rows. Also becauseof the peaked form of the forward end of the board, the center-most rowis the longest and the rows become progressively shorter to either sideof the center row. The board 10 is marked along the margin of itsforward portion with numbers indicating levels or distances along therows from their lower starting ends. Thus, for example, the illustratedboard has numbers 1 through 8 which indicate positions or levels alongthe paths defined by the rows of receptacles.

The propelling means 26 for the illustrated apparatus comprise aplurality of individual flippers located along the lower or startingedge 14 of the board. Each of the flippers 26 is aligned with one of thepaths for the marbles. Rails or guides 28 may be provided on the surface18 of the board adjacent the flippers 26 to guide the marbles andposition them relative to the flippers. The flippers 26 are in the formof upstanding plastic blades of a semi-flexible and resilient material.The blades are secured at their lower ends and are free at theirupwardly extending ends. The child-user simply pulls back on the upperend of the blade and releases it to cause the blade to propell themarble in front of the blade forwardly. The incline of the board causesthe marbles to automatically seat themselves back against the blades.The guides 28 serve to position the marbles generally centrally fromside to side of the flippers.

In the play of the game, the marbles 12 may be initially disposed infront of the flippers 26 and/or in certain of the receptacles 20. Eachof the players may be assigned specific flippers 26 and associated rowsof receptacles 20, and/or each player may have marbles 12 of a differentcolor. The players then operate the flippers to propell the marbles upthe inclined surface 18. The marbles may seat directly in a receptacleor they may bounce off of the peripheral wall 19, particularly theinclined forward end portions 21 of that wall. This bouncing effectenhances the play value of the game. Marbles may fall into receptaclesas they roll downwardly of the surface, and be retained therein by therearward upright wall portions 25. As noted above, when a propelledmarble engages a marble already in a receptacle, the propelled marbletends to move the other marble forward and to seat itself in thereceptacle. If there are more than one marble already in the receptacle,the forward-most marble tends to be propelled forward out of thereceptacle and to the next receptacle in the path. The players flip themarbles so as to achieve a game objective such as getting all of theircolored marbles past a certain level, or getting as many of their colormarbles as high as they can. The play may continue for a specified timeperiod, with the winners being determined by the position of his marblesor the position of the marbles in his rows. Alternatively, the play maycontinue until some achievement level is reached, such as one of themarbles reaching the highest level or all of the colored marbles of oneplayer passing a certain minimum level. As another alternative, eachplayer may have a turn at flipping marbles until all marbles areretained in some receptacle, and the point total may be determined foreach player based on the levels reached by the various marbles.

If desired, the incline of the board may be adjustable as by means ofhaving the board supported at one end by feet 30 (FIG. 2) in the form ofupright adjustable screws.

As noted above, the marbles might be replaced by other forms of playpieces or objects as, for example, slidable blocks 32, with thereceptacles being suitable modified as shown in FIG. 3. In thisconnection, receptacles may be formed by slightly raised sections 23 ofthe playing board which will guide and temporarily hold back the blocksbut would subsequently release them when such block is impacted by afurther block, in a manner similar to that chain-reaction describedabove in connection with the marbles.

Similarly, various other means for propelling the objects may besubstituted as, for example, spring-biased plungers of the type oftenfound in pinball machines, although such would be more expensive thanthe flippers of the preferred form of the invention.

It would also be possible to have other than straight line paths or rowsof receptacles. For example, a receptacle 36 might be curved or anglesas shown in FIG. 4 so that play objects would enter the receptacle inone direction but be directed out from it in a different direction. Sucharrangements might be utilized to add to the variety and interest of thegame to the child. In addition to the foregoing, various barriers and/orguides could be provided on the board. By way of example, FIG. 4 shows abarrier 38 mounted on the surface of the board. Also, for example, theremight be apertures 40 such as shown in FIG. 4 forming traps so that whena play object enters such a'trap it would thereby be eliminated fromfurther play in that game.

We claim:

1. A game apparatus comprising:

a game board having means thereon defining at least one path for themovement of play objects therealong, said path comprising at least twospaced apart elongated receptacles positioned in said game board, saidreceptacles having a bottom which slopes downwardly from one end towarda deeper end portion substantially at the other end and said receptaclesbeing aligned in sequence with one another along said path and adaptedto receive play objects and to retain no more than a certain number ofsaid play objects at any one time and to release a retained play objectupon receiving a subsequent play object in excess of said certainnumber,

propelling means associated with said board for propelling an objecttowards the first of said receptacles in a path whereby objects may becaused to move progressively from receptacle to receptacle along saidpath.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said board has an upper surface andsaid receptacles comprise depressions in said surface.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the depressions in a path arearranged in a generally straight line with each depression beingelongated in the direction of said line so as to receive and retain morethan one object therein.

4. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein said board surface is inclined sothat said path extends upwardly.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 comprising at least two paths, and twopropelling means each aligned with one of said paths.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein each of said propelling meanscomprises a flexible flipper arm aligned with one of said paths.

7. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein one or more depressions in a path iscurved so that the path is nonlinear.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising, in combination, aplurality of play objects movable over said surface.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein said objects are spheres.

10. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein said objects are slidable blocks.

1 l. A game apparatus comprising a game board having a flat uppersurface, a plurality of spherical objects adapted to roll along saidflat upper surface, said game board also including means on said uppersurface defining a plurality of depressions therein, said depressionsbeing arranged in two or more parallel rows, each of said rows having atleast two depressions therein starting with a first depression andprogressing forwardly along the row to a last depression, thedepressions in each row being elongated in the direction of the row topermit them to releasibly hold a defined maximum number of marbles, saidnumber being more than one, said board having at least two means forpropelling the spherical objects to impinge upon the depressions. eachof said propelling means being located in alignment with one of saidrows, said depression being of a configuration and rearwardly of thefirst depression in said one row, the depressions being configured sothat upon impingement of a marble upon a depression containing saiddefined maximum number of marbles, the forwardmost marble in saiddepression is released forwardly from said depression.

3,807,736 Dated April 30, 1974 Patent: No.

Adolph E. Goldfarb et al Inventor(s) It is certified that error appearsin the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent are herebycorrected as shown below:

In Claim ll, Column 4, line 45 after "row (second occurrence) insertsaid depression being of a configuration--.

In Claim 11, Column 4, lines 51 and 52, delete said depression being ofa configuration".

Signed and sealed this 10th day of September 197 (SEAL) Attest:

MCCOY M. GIBSON, JR. C. MARSHALL DANN Attesting Officer Commissioner ofPatents FORM PO-IOSO (10-69) uscoMM-Dc 60376-P69 I 0.5. GOVERNMENTPRINTING OFFICE: I969 0-366-334,

1. A game apparatus comprising: a game board having means thereondefining at least one path for the movement of play objects therealong,said path comprising at least two spaced apart elongated receptaclespositioned in said game board, said receptacles having a bottom whichslopes downwardly from one end toward a deeper end portion substantiallyat the other end and said receptacles being aligned in sequence with oneanother along said path and adapted to receive play objects and toretain no more than a certain number of said play objects at any onetime and to release a retained play object upon receiving a subsequentplay object in excess of said certain number, propelling meansassociated with said board for propelling an object towards the first ofsaid receptacles in a path whereby objects may be caused to moveprogressively from receptacle to receptacle along said path.
 2. Theapparatus of claim 1 wherein said board has an upper surface and saidreceptacles comprise depressions in said surface.
 3. The apparatus ofclaim 2 wherein the depressions in a path are arranged in a generallystraight line with each depression being elongated in the direction ofsaid line so as to receive and retain more than one object therein. 4.The apparatus of claim 2 wherein said board surface is inclined so thatsaid path extends upwardly.
 5. The apparatus of claim 1 comprising atleast two paths, and two propelling means each aligned with one of saidpaths.
 6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein each of said propelling meanscomprises a flexible flipper arm aligned with one of said paths.
 7. Theapparatus of claim 2 wherein one or more depressions in a path is curvedso that the path is non-linear.
 8. The apparatus of claim 1 furthercomprising, in combination, a plurality of play objects movable oversaid surface.
 9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein said objects arespheres.
 10. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein said objects are slidableblocks.
 11. A game apparatus comprising a game board having a flat uppersurface, a plurality of spherical objects adapted to roll along saidflat upper surface, said game board also including means on said uppersurface defining a plurality of depressions therein, said depressionsbeing arranged in two or more parallel rows, each of said rows having atleast two depressions therein starting with a first depression andprogressing forwardly along the row to a last depression, thedepressions in each row being elongated in the direction of the row topermit them to releasibly hold a defined maximum number of marbles, saidnumber being more than one, said board having at least two means forpropelling the spherical objects to impinge upon the depressions. eachof said propelling means being located in alignment with one of saidrows, said depression being of a configuration and rearwardly of thefirst depression in said one row, the depressions being configured sothat upon impingement of a marble upon a depression containing saiddefined maximum number of marbles, the forwardmost marble in saiddepression is released forwardly from said depression.